Newark Public Safety Collaborative Announces Winner of “Reduce Your Emission, Turn Off Your Ignition” Poster Contest
The Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC), the Newark School of the Arts, Engage Fairmount, the Trust for Public Land, and Mantena Global Care have selected the design of six-year-old Liyah Sofia Salvador as the grand prize winner of its "Reduce Your Emission, Turn Off Your Ignition" public safety poster contest.
NPSC is an initiative that includes Rutgers University–Newark, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice Anchor Initiative, the City of Newark, and other community partners, which maximizes local resources and expertise to solve problems and improve the impact of public safety work underway in Newark. Through the “Reduce Your Emission, Turn Off Your Ignition” poster contest launched in the spring, the sponsors sought to raise awareness of the adverse effects idling automobiles have on public safety, particularly increased incidents of motor vehicle theft. As noted by NPSC Director Alejandro Santana, "leaving cars running unattended is associated with up to 21 percent of all auto thefts reported in the city of Newark during 2020."
Salvador’s artwork will be printed and distributed throughout the city of Newark at high-risk areas for motor vehicle theft due to idling. Her poster features a van and a peaceful protester. A thought cloud emanating from the van proclaims, “idling gets you nowhere,” while a handmade cardboard sign wielded by the protester displays a heart emoji followed by the word “Newark.”
NPSC invited all individuals and community organizations based in Newark to participate in the poster competition and encouraged them to be creative by incorporating various recyclable and reusable materials into their creations. Examples of reusable materials included leaves, twigs, paper/cardboard, pasta, beans, food labels, shoelaces, and empty wrappers, among other items. The artists had the option of using pens, pencils, markers, and/or paint. For their time and effort, each contestant received a certificate of appreciation.
About the Newark Public Safety Collaborative
The Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC) was formed in 2018 as part of the Rutgers-Newark, School of Criminal Justice Anchor Initiative. Through a direct partnership with the Newark Mayor’s Office and community stakeholders, the NPSC builds on successes of past violence reduction initiatives with a greater focus on place-based analytics and data-driven community engagement for crime prevention and public safety. NPSC brings together community-based organizations, data analysts, social workers, policymakers, and practitioners to contextualize “big data” and make decisions for actions in a coordinated fashion. The NPSC maximizes local resources and expertise to solve problems and improve the impact of public safety work already underway in Newark.
Crime prevention requires thoughtful decision-making informed by real-time understandings of the spatial dynamics of crime and its related factors. It requires a concerted effort to think about the mechanisms that enable crime hotspots to emerge and persist over time. The NPSC enables city officials and community leaders to focus on the places that are in greatest need of resources. They then implement strategies that utilize their collective strengths in coordinated and complementary ways.
For more information, visit https://newarkcollaborative.org.
